US ambassador Wilson: ""We are deeply grateful for the work that Turkish police officers do"

After yesterday's attack on the US Consulate in Istanbul, US Ambassador to Ankara Ross Wilson said, "First, I want to express my condolences and those of the US government to the families of three Turkish police personnel who were killed in the attack that took place earlier today on our consulate general in Istanbul. I understand there may be an additional two Turkish police who are wounded, and they and their families and all of their loved ones are very much in our thoughts and prayers." He added, "The police responded effectively and quickly. We are deeply grateful for the work that they do to protect our official US government establishments here. We are of course cooperating closely with them now." He also said, "I spoke with Foreign Ministry Undersecretary (Ertugrul) Apakan very shortly after the attack earlier today, (and) he conveyed the government's condolences and commitment to protect our embassy, our consulates, and our official establishments here and their personnel, for which I'm very grateful." He added, "It is, of course, inappropriate now to speculate on who is responsible for this or why they carried out this action. It is an obvious act of terrorism. Our countries will stand together to confront this, as we have confronted similar problems in the past."